2022 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 20 - 22

[GrizzleBoy]

There must be some way for us to have race threads that don't devolve into this BS every single time......

It wasn't like this before 2021.

[Spoutnik]

[JordanMugen]

Redbull has no interest in equal number 1. They would have promoted Gasly a long time ago.

Which they did, did you forget that they thought Gasly was fast so they did promote him?!

They only unpromoted Gasly when they found out he wasn't the fast driver they thought. Indeed, now Tsunoda is often outpacing Gasly.

[JordanMugen]

With two RedBulls in front there is no race for the win basically.

Wow. Just wow. So it's OK for Mercedes to not bother find a suitable equal number one replacement for Rosberg for five whole seasons? To keep Bottas long after it is clear that Bottas is significantly inferior to Rosberg and unlikely to ever win a WDC? To deliberately leave Russell at Williams instead of a timely promotion in 2020 or 2021, even though unlike Bottas, Russell very likely could and would have contended for the 2020 & 2021 WDC?

I don't understand what Mercedes has to do with this?

You said:
With two RedBulls in front there is no race for the win basically.

Others could say:
With two Mercedes in front there is no race for the win basically.

Is that not an obvious equivalence? I thought it was obvious what Mercedes has to do with it, they were ones doing that for years!

Please correct me if I mistaken, but I do recall some posters deliberately calling for Russell's promotion to be delayed and not brought forward to 2020 or 2021, and the promotion supposedly not being in the interest of Mercedes GP.

Heck this delayed promotion was exactly why Red Bull Racing were trying to see whether they could get Russell for 2021! With such a talented driver, RBR would be happy to run equal number one status.

[ringo]

I dont post often in these race threads these days. Just too much nonsense and hatred.
Even when LH is driving a dog of a car, folks still expend energy to bash the driver.
I guess it comes with having 103 wins and 103 poles and 7wdc.
He will not win this year, but at least he should be able win 3 races. I think that would make for a good season.
With 7wdc at 37 years old, there is nothing left to prove.

[Sieper]

I am frustrated that my team lost an almost sure win, but --- happens.
I am curious as to if Mercedes was showing off a bit today, maybe under fuelling their cars?
Expect them to be back to their normal pace at Monaco.

In clean air George was falling one second a lap slower than Charles at one point. Let's say that defensive driving accounted for 3 tenths, that means Merc are still seven thenths behind in race pace.

More. He had to charge his battery the whole lap to use it on the straight (I think). That is very suboptimal for laptime. Not to say I don’t think Lewis is the faster of the pair. He is, but Russell is doing well and has had a bit of luck on his side.

Bad luck for Charles. Happened to Max twice already. Maybe Ferrari was running very close to the limit? Sounded like a turbo seizure.

[dialtone]

ha . No he wasn't, Ham's fastest times and time gain came right after Verstappen passed Perez and lasted for a whole of 7 laps. He may have challenged Russell but not the RedBulls.

[Hoffman900]

I dont post often in these race threads these days. Just too much nonsense and hatred.
Even when LH is driving a dog of a car, folks still expend energy to bash the driver.
I guess it comes with having 103 wins and 103 poles and 7wdc.
He will not win this year, but at least he should be able win 3 races. I think that would make for a good season.
With 7wdc at 37 years old, there is nothing left to prove.

This, and it's the same 5 people.

I've been ignoring this site and other F1 media / discussion sites, and F1 is way more enjoyable when you don't have to think about it beyond the sessions and what a bunch of strangers, almost all who have zero motorsports experience in their life, have to say.

[ringo]

Redbull has no interest in equal number 1. They would have promoted Gasly a long time ago.

Which they did, did you forget that they thought Gasly was fast so they did promote him?!

They only unpromoted Gasly when they found out he wasn't the fast driver they thought. Indeed, now Tsunoda is often outpacing Gasly.

You know what i mean. Gasly was driving well at Torro Roso after he was sent back. Drivers mature at different rates. Gasly has been top notch since 2020. He has done enough to be in redbull.
This season has shown how good other young drivers can race against Max and make him look very mediocre. George manhandled him today with very great defense. And we have seen Charles outmaneuvre Max. It's very likely Gasly would have upset Max were he to return to redbull after gaining a better understand of F1 in Alpha Tauri and getting a race win.

The point of the matter is the team formerly known as Jaguar is now Team Max with Redbull Energy drinks as title sponsor.

[Hoffman900]

I dont post often in these race threads these days. Just too much nonsense and hatred.
Even when LH is driving a dog of a car, folks still expend energy to bash the driver.
I guess it comes with having 103 wins and 103 poles and 7wdc.
He will not win this year, but at least he should be able win 3 races. I think that would make for a good season.
With 7wdc at 37 years old, there is nothing left to prove.

off topic. You must post this in the lewis shrine tread.

I'm not even a diehard Lewis or Mercedes fan, but your post / voting history tells us everything, included openly admitting to posting to antagonize.

JordanMugan, Artur Craft, etc. are all similar. I see one of their posts, I can guarantee Lewis is going to come up at some point, and it's annoying.

[fritticaldi]

Russell is the revelation of the season. Verstappen is a juggernaut . Nobody will stop him. Sainz is losing credibility fast. Sadly Mick Schumacher is also not living up to his much hyped expectations.

[chrisc90]

I'm totally disgusted with these RedBull team orders. It's just so manufactured and fake.. And it's just six races in. Smh.

It's funny how Mercedes fans are more annoyed by the team orders than Red Bull fans! Everyone knows Perez is the number two driver at Red Bull. Red Bull tried to get Russell as equal number one in 2021, but Mercedes wouldn't release the Norfolk ace from contract, so Perez as number two it is.

The only other choice for Red Bull to find an equal number one (which is the ideal scenario, as a team should always take the two fastest available drivers) would be Alonso, but Honda may not be pleased with that and it seems Alonso is still very political (e.g., condemning FIA stewards in the official press conference in Spain) and may cause political troubles with Horner, Marko and Verstappen, Honda and the FIA. So perhaps not the most suitable choice, despite being a very skilled driver.

Redbull has no interest in equal number 1. They would have promoted Gasly a long time ago.
He has done everything to earn another chance in redbull; but they will never allow him to upset Max.
Today Perez deserved the win. Even if it was becausr Max DRS was not working. Perez had the pace and made light work of George.
Redbull curtailed Perez stint and put Max on a faster tyre for the sole purpose of switching the cars.
This is very demotivating for the Driver. No matter how well Perez drives if Max is behind him they will switch the drivers.
Very unfortunate and takes a lot of the fun of watching as many drivers fight for wins this year.
But Perez just has play the role and collect the money. Keep driving till they let you go Checo! Vamos!

I think RB had to do something with Max to get him past George, due to the DRS.
Swapping to softs made that work lovely.

Once again showing RB have strategy masterclass

[JordanMugen]

Gasly has been top notch since 2020. He has done enough to be in redbull.

Gasly was beaten by Tsunoda in this very race. It would be a huge risk for Red Bull to take Gasly again -- they would look so stupid if they put Gasly back in and Gasly was off the pace again. IMO Gasly has not demonstrated talent on the Verstappen or Russell level, it's more likely that Gasly is similar to Fisichella or Frentzen, an impressive at times but inconsistent midfield driver IMO (and I say that as a big Fisico fan!).

Fisichella seemed really good, had beaten so many teammates, but put him against Alonso and it was a disaster.

It's very likely Gasly would have upset Max were he to return to redbull after gaining a better understand of F1 in Alpha Tauri and getting a race win.

I can guarantee that the reason the Gasly is not back in RBR is not because they think Gasly will be too fast! Quite the opposite unfortunately.

There's zero evidence that Gasly would be extremely fast in the RBR. They put Gasly in the RBR and Gasly was terrible, and worse Gasly offended the engineers by not following their setup instructions.

If RBR thought Gasly was really fast, they would put him in the car in an instant. Many people thought Sainz was really fast and it was silly for RBR to overlook him, but Sainz's poor performance against Leclerc tends to suggest that sadly maybe RBR were right.

George manhandled him today with very great defense. And we have seen Charles outmaneuvre Max.

George is on the same level as Charles and Max. There is little evidence that Pierre is. Pierre isn't even comfortably ahead of Yuki all the time.

[lh13]

Redbull has no interest in equal number 1. They would have promoted Gasly a long time ago.

Which they did, did you forget that they thought Gasly was fast so they did promote him?!

They only unpromoted Gasly when they found out he wasn't the fast driver they thought. Indeed, now Tsunoda is often outpacing Gasly.

You know what i mean. Gasly was driving well at Torro Roso after he was sent back. Drivers mature at different rates. Gasly has been top notch since 2020. He has done enough to be in redbull.
This season has shown how good other young drivers can race against Max and make him look very mediocre. George manhandled him today with very great defense. And we have seen Charles outmaneuvre Max. It's very likely Gasly would have upset Max were he to return to redbull after gaining a better understand of F1 in Alpha Tauri and getting a race win.

The point of the matter is the team formerly known as Jaguar is now Team Max with Redbull Energy drinks as title sponsor.

At least they don't hide behind 'we give equal opportunity to both drivers', so there's that. Don't like it, don't watch it.

[NicoS]

What was also nice, NO VSC or SC today, so no one got screwed by bad luck.
Errors and reliability were the only to variables.